Black Monday
by RaxusLives
Summary: As the galactic economy undergoes it's first full-scale firesale, people watch as decades of work and savings evaporate. That is, until an unlikely savior walks into the trading floor. Oneshot, most probably.


**Author's Note: First, please review. This has to be my oddest work yet, and I am very curious as to what you think of it. It is, unless something else crazy pops into my head, a Oneshot.**

* * *

**Black Monday**

The galactic economy was naturally stable. With the Asari and Volus controlling the largest trading firms and banks, it was only natural that their routinely slow, deliberate behavior would transfer to the market itself. This is not to say, however, that there weren't downward trends and minor hiccups, for there were. But when one market dipped, another swelled, and the system as a whole gained.

This stability was helped by the tone that trading and business management took, as the races of the galaxy strove to better everyone's situation, and as such rarely engaged in trade that was entirely devoted to hurting one another. The seemingly limitless nature of the galaxy's resources helped this along, as the gains made by hurting another rarely outperformed those made by engaging in fair trade. To put it simply, mutually beneficial trade was everyone's goal. Until the humans came.

Like a fire spreading through dry brush, humanity erupted upon the economic scene. Spreading from their worlds after the First Contact War, their first targets were in the housing sectors, as their colonies began spreading throughout Council Space. When these colonies were threatened by the Batarians, humanity began investing in weapons tech and utilized their growing economic muscle to dampen Batarian trade. When the batarians went to the Council for help, they were rejected, and it seemed that the human way of trade was validated.  
And so they continued to expand. Perhaps the galaxy should have taken the batarian example as a warning, but the Council was simply happy to have another robust economy to integrate into galactic trade. The only problem was that this outlook did not match humanity's goal. For humanity would not "integrate". It would not "assimilate". Humanity would dominate, or it would die trying.

Perhaps it is wrong to call this will to dominate, to subjugate those who stood between them and profit, a "goal". It is more of a conclusion. Humanity, unlike the other races of the galaxy, had frequently experienced universal economic crashes as the backroom dealing and speculation that simultaneously drove and plagued it's markets eventually caught up with it. This history, this experience, created a different kind of business model than what, for example, the Asari had. While the Volus and Asari focused on friendly competition and mutual advancement, humanity focused on expansion and the acquisition of power, to the point of driving other companies into bankruptcy to achieve them.

As the newest player in a game far larger than they had ever imagined, humanity found it's natural abilities threatened, as the galaxy moved to embrace, and ultimately smother, the driving focus of human trade. But, like they had across the millenia, humanity resisted. It fought the powers that held sway, the powers that tempted them with profits, and demanded only cooperation and co-prosperity. And they won. The batarians were only first example of a growing list of casualties, as some of the largest and most well known organizations and business fell to human concerns.

The United Galactic Bank (UGB), one of the largest investment banks that ever arose from Asari space, was violently seized in a hostile takeover by a human consortium. Buying any and all available stock, the humans eventually controlled just over 50% of the company, at which time they demanded a stockholder's meeting. Here they voted in a new board of directors, and every one of them was human. With its power secured, the now human operated UGB began expanding exponentially. It was the first to begin offering loans and trades without examining the potential loanee's credit history. It was the first to take these potentially bad loans and bundle them, before selling them to other banks, all the while without releasing the exact nature of the original loans.

And UGB's stock rose as its profits broke record after record. The Council, sensing foul play, sent in investigators. These men returned, proclaiming the good-natured trading of UGB, as they fought to hide the money they had accepted as "gifts". The salarians and volus owned banks attempted to band together, to fight UGB and the other human interests that were beginning to saturate the market, but the human trade interests simply bought out those who opposed them, or boycotted into oblivion those unwilling to sell. Their victory seemed absolute.

But, like every market in human history, the good times had to end. On a rainy Monday morning within the trading district of Illium's capital, the confidence that had driven human investment and trade finally died. There really was no singular event or reason why the market began to fall that day, it just did. By mid-afternoon, the sheer volume of people selling stocks began to drag the market downward. As this happened, human and foreign investors alike began becoming fearful. They were the first to see the disaster. Knowing that prices were falling, but not how far they would fall, many began preemptively selling, which only quicken the pace of decent. By Tuesday morning, the sell off had caused the Galactic Industrial Average to fall from 67,248 to 52,112, a massive drop by anyone's count. Fear, as it often does, multiplied, and once enough investors had decided the boom was over, it was over.

It was UGB that fell first. As people moved to pull their money out of investments, UGB soon found itself without the capital to give them the money owed, as this had all been invested in more stocks, which were by their own doing, falling. News that people were being turned away from UGB created the galaxy's first fire-sale, as newscasters screamed into their cameras, telling the stories of those who had lost everything. This fear spread to other human banks, where similar results occurred. The asari, volus, and salarian banks, as they were far more diversified and had large amounts of capital, moved to help. But it would do no good. Everything was falling, and as such the economy fell with it.

The General Salesfloor on the Citadel, the hub of galactic commerce, was nearly a riot as Friday's trading day began. Dozens of newsbots swirled around the floor, allowing the galaxy at large to witness the death of galactic prosperity. Screaming, shouting, yelling by the thousands, traders of every shape and size were attempting to get out of the market before everything was lost. The news that a turian trader had hung himself in shame upon learning that his investment firm had filed for bankruptcy only added a layer of tragedy to a story of horror. As the Galactic Industrial Average fell below 20,000, videos captured anguish and fear upon a thousand trader's faces. There was nothing they could do.

Into this chamber of chaos, of fear, of agony, walked a volus. Impeccably dressed in the newest of envirosuits, he was flanked to each side by a pair of equally respectable men, two of which were turian, the other two human. The newsbots, upon being told of this, swarmed the volus and his retinue. With these videos streaming live, newscasters across the galaxy broke into regularly scheduled programming to announce that Mach Dar, and the four other CEOs of the largest investment banks still standing had arrived on the trading floor. Traders fell quiet for the first time in hours, watching as this small group made their way to a trading desk, the newsbots covering every step.

With his envirosuit being of the highest quality available, the intrusive breathing that normally accompanied Volus speech was missing from Mach Dar, as he spoke to the salarian clerk that stood humbled before him. "I would like to purchase Harlo and Brothers." He stated quietly.

The salarian, fumbling for words, finally managed to speak. "I-I'm sure someone... such as yourself knows that Harlo and Brothers j-just went into liquidation. That stock is toxic." With a slight wave of his hand, the volus CEO dismissed the salarian's warnings, forcing him to speak again. "Th-Then, sir, how much do you want?"

Turning to the crowd that had assembled, to the newsbots that floated expectantly, Mach Dar spread his arms wide. "_**All of it.**_"

The news, beamed live, spread immediately. Mach Dar and his associates were buying, and they were buying _everything_. The confidence that had departed so quickly on Monday slowly began to leak back into the markets, as other traders began following Mach Dar's trades. Rather quickly, he and his fellow CEOs quickly held the controlling interest in nearly three dozen major banks. For the first time that week, the markets on the average went up.

As Mach Dar left the trading floor that night, he was greeted by applause and gratitude. One elderly turian, breaking from the crowd, actually got down onto his knees, thanking the volus for saving his child's college fund. The rotund volus only waved, smiling beneath his mask.

Later that night, the five CEOs sat at small table in a private room behind one of the richest bars on the Presidium. Mach Dar again spread his arms in the same all-encompassing gesture that he had used upon the trading floor. "Then we are ready, gentlemen." He laughed, "We have bought ourselves some time. By Monday morning, be ready to sell. _Everything_. Once we start, the markets aren't going to depress. They aren't going to bend. They are going to collapse. And us?" He rose a glass of green liquid in a salute that his companions mimicked. "We will be long gone, our collective futures secure." As the men arrayed around him laughed in agreement, the volus connected the glass to his suit's import valve, before draining the entire drink. As the intoxicating liquid began its work, the volus couldn't drop the smile that had spread across his face.

"_The rich get richer..."_

_

* * *

**Authors Note: Its funny, what Writer's-Block can do to you. I can't really say where this story came from. In a furious fit of writing, it was cobbled together in about two and a half hours. I know I should be working on Beneath the Veil or A Creed Unhinged (my other two stories) but this just came up. Hope you liked it, at least. Some say its badass to land a headshot with a sniper rifle from two miles away. I say its badass to play the markets so hard, you walk away richer as the rest of the galaxy burns. Hmph. Please review, by the way. I really would love to get your reactions on this.**_


End file.
